* Gheorghe Șimon: "The royalties law will be voted in the Parliament in February next year"* Ministry of the Economy: "We will establish royalties which are fair both for the state as well as for the business sector"* Daniel Cătălin Zamfir, PNL: "I found out that there are companies that have never, take note, never paid even one leu in royalties to the Romanian state, even though they have been exploiting resources for over 20 years"* Last year, the Court of Auditors announced that Romania lost 1.4 billion dollars, because the ANRM established the oil royalties in a flawed manner
The entire legislative package concerning the regulation of the system for the regulation of the mineral, oil and hydromineral resources will be revised and will be voted in the Parliament in February next year, Economics minister, Gheorghe Șimon, announced yesterday, after the debates of the Economic, Industries and Services Commission of the Senate. According to him, the Ministry is going to conduct a thorough study, in order to make the royalty fair. Gheorghe Șimon said, quoted by News.ro: "There is no rule (concerning the raise or drop of the royalties - ed. note), we need to conduct a thorough study for the draft law to be fair to us and the business sector. We will establish royalties so that the state isn't fleeced, but also so we don't kill off the business sector. We need investors in this country". According to him, the state helping the business sector is a normal and common sense economic principle: "Even if the state will charge this royalty, it is a lot lower than what the Romanian state could earn though taxes when the business sector is developing. That is the idea of the royalty overall, and for geothermal waters, crude oil and gas in particular". The Ministry of the Economy had put the draft law for the regulation of the royalty system for the concessions of mineral, oil and hydromineral resources up for debate on October 23rd. According to the proposal, the royalties for on-shore (on land) exploitations were left unchanged, between 3.5%-13.5% of the value of the deposits' output, depending on the size of the exploitation, and in the case of off-shore natural gas deposits, a fixed quota of 10% would be set for the entire extracted volume and a variable one of 2% and 3%, depending on the extracted volume. Radu Dudău, former advisor in the Ministry of Energy, said that the new proposal was discouraging investors, on the offshore side. Now, legislation on royalties will see a new postponement, even though PM Mihai Tudose had announced they would be raised starting in 2018. PNL senator Daniel Cătălin Zamfir, the president of the Economic Commission, yesterday wrote on Facebook, that he found out during the debates that there are companies that have never paid one leu in royalties to the Romanian state, even though they have been exploiting resources for over 20 years: "Incredible! Unimaginable!". Today (ed. note: yesterday) the hearings of the Economic Commission of the Senate, the Minister of the Economy, Gheorghe Șimon, confirmed the plunder overseen by the National Agency of Mineral Resources! "I found out that there are companies that have never, take note, never, even one leu in royalties to the Romanian state, even though they have been exploiting resources for over 20 years! The employees of the Stat have not monitored the payment of the royalties and when they did and found that they weren't getting paid, they did not withdraw those licenses and they weren't concerned with recouping the debts! We have asked the newly installed management of the ANRM to urgently recoup the huge amounts owed to the Romanian state and in doing so to present a detailed report of the situation. There has constantly been talk about the plundering of the country, but I never imagined something like this, for so many years, with the complicity of the authorities of the State! By the way, shouldn't other entities of the State intervene?" Daniel Zamfir said that he wasn't talking about the oil sector. The Court of Auditors said, in a report announced for 2011-2015, that the National Mineral Resources Agency (ANRM) did not enforce the law and set a reference price for the natural gas extracted from Romania under other circumstances than the ones set through the Oil law of 2004, which led to the drop of the oil royalty owed to the state budget by approximately 4.67 billion lei (1.4 billion dollars). Recently, Iulian Iancu, the president of the Commission for the Investigation of the ANRE in the Chamber of Deputies said, in the Commission, that Dumitru Costin, the head of the National Union Block (BNS) presented documents according to which OMV Petrom prejudiced the Romanian state by 7 billion lei. According to Iancu, Costin claimed that he had received from the Romanian authorities documents concerning OMV, which describe investigations at various stages concerning tax evasion when it comes to salaries, VAT, the modification of the formula and the incorrect payment of royalties by OMV. OMV Petrom denied the accusations that it failed to pay its taxes, which were made in the November 9th session of the Parliamentary Commission for the investigation of the activity of the ANRE. The representatives of the company said: "Over the years, the company has been the subject of several audits by the tax administration, which have been completed. The last fiscal audit, which concerned the oil and natural gas royalties for the 2011-2015 period, was completed without any findings in the second quarter of this year". The new royalties law is going to replace the new system for the taxation of oil and gas resources, system which had been established since back in 2004, when Petrom, the biggest oil company in Romania. The contract for the privatization of Petrom since 2014 stipulated that the level of the royalty would remain unchanged for ten years.

* Șimon: "We would need two more Cuprumin to be able to justify a plant for the processing of copper ore" The building of a plant for the processing of copper ore would be justified if it was going to process at least 120,000 tons, but Cuprumin can only deliver 35,000 tons of ore, Economy minister Gheorghe Șimon Tuesday, told the Economic, industries and services Commission in the Senate Tuesday. "We have not abandoned the idea of Cuprumin, just like we haven't abandoned many other companies that are part of the portfolio of the Ministry of the Economy. The environmental permit will be obtained. We have made investments towards that goal and the environmental permit will be extended. These issues will be seen through. We have talked to the people in charge of environmental issues. We are on schedule this time. The issue with mining that we have in Romania is the following: there is no more mining. Sure it is tragic for the Romanian state to sell a resource. Cuprumin sells a resource. It exploits an ore, transforms it into concentrate and then it gets sold abroad. So it is leaving Romania. It would have been very good if it were staying in Romania. We have the intention to build this plant to obtain electrolytical copper. In order to get electrolytic copper we need the plant which needs to be designed for at least 110-120,000 tons. That is where it would be profitable. Today, Cuprumin only delivers 35,000 tons. We would need two more Cuprumin so we can justify a plant", said Gheorghe Șimon. He stated that the Romanian state did not legislate the reopening of mines, and this aspect is awaited through the new Mining law. The Minister of the Economy said that the intention was to reopen mining where possible and he brought up the situation of Remin Baia Mare.

* The Minister of the Economy: "I am not pleased with the way things are going at Salrom" On Tuesday, Economy minister Gheorghe Șimon said that he was unhappy with the way the activity at Salrom was going, because even though its profit had doubled, the investments were small and not even those had been fully realized. "I will admit from the start that things aren't going perfectly at Salrom either. I am not pleased with how things are going over there. I have no problem with corporate management, I really don't. I take it as it is and I believe that this management needs to produce results. There may be other reasons why it isn't producing results. And I am referring to what? As minister of the Economy I am not interested that much in the profile that Salrom is making. It doubled its profit in 2017 compared to 2016. I am not interested that much in that. Of course I don't want to see it losing money. I am interested in how much Salrom invested, and sure, I am interested in it making a profit, but also in how much it has invested. And I didn't like it at all when I saw a position of the directorate of Salrom contrary to mine concerning investments. Aside from the fact that the amounts to be invested in 2017 were smaller, those investments weren't even completed. The investment program was only achieved at a 74% or 76% rate", said Gheorghe Șimon, in the works of the Economic, Industry and Services Commission in the Senate, according to Agerpres. He admitted that overall, Salrom makes a profit, but there are mining units that are losing money, one such example being the Cacica mine, which has the purest salt. According to the minister, the company's next year's budget will be one directed towards investments.

* The president of the Association of Brokers has taken the matter to the County Court of Cluj, to address the capital reduction of 2014 and the subsequent decisions of the company * Liviu Stoleru, CEO of Cemacon, told us on Thursday, that "no notification has been received from the company concerning such a topic" * The case was recorded on Friday, with the County Court of Cluj * BCR sold to BOF for 2 Euros the non-performing loans of 16.5 million Euros of "Cemacon" and "Ambient"
* UPDATE 15.45 "Cemacon" confirms the lawsuit brought by Dan Paul "Cemacon" today sent the Bucharest Stock Exchange, a report whereby it confirms the existence of the lawsuit brought by Dan Paul, the president of the Association of Brokers. However, the officials of the company wrote that they have no details about the case. ------- Dan Paul, the president of the Association of Brokers, has sued "Cemacon" (CEON), acting as shareholder, seeking the annulment of the shareholders' decision of March 24th, 2014, concerning the reduction of the share capital and of the subsequent acts, according to a notification seen by "BURSA".
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15.03.2018

THE NATIONAL BANK OF ROMANIA ISN'T COMMENTING, EVEN THOUGH BOTH COMMERCIAL BANKS ARE LISTED ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE

The National Bank of Romania (BNR) has blocked the acquisition of Banca Românească by OTP Bank România, according to information which appeared yesterday in the Romanian press, as well as on some foreign websites. Thus, the NBR hasn't issued an opinion on the transaction, even though the time by which it should have done so expired since back in autumn last year.
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* OMV has a budget of 10 billion Euros for takeovers, until 2025 and it is targeting the markets in the Middle East and Asia Pacific * Manfred Leitner: "It is unknown how the BRUA pipeline will be implemented, but I don't think that all the gas volumes of the Black Sea that get exported will only go to the West"
OMV wants to reduce its dependence on the European market, between 2020-2025, and will focus on acquisitions in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, according to CEO Rainer Seele.
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The European Union (EU) intends to apply tariffs for imports of 2.8 billion Euros (3.5 billion dollars) in the US, from T-shirts and bourbon, to motorbikes, if American president Donald Trump continues its plan to impose 25% tariffs for foreign steel acquisitions, according to Bloomberg.
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* The EU, which is preparing retaliatory tariffs of its own against the US, is carrying out talks with the countries that will be affected by the taxes proposed by the Americans: Japan, Canada, Brazil and Turkey * German economy minister: "President Trump wants to play a game that no one can win"
One of the top advisors to US president Donald Trump has recently announced that the US will not make any exception from the application of tariffs set on imported steel and aluminum, even if the EU is preparing reprisals, according to ft.com.
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05.03.2018

LAST WEEK, ROMANIA HAD THE BIGGEST IMPORTS OF NATURAL GAS IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS

* In Europe, the cold weather has led to a significant rise in the price of natural gas
Last week, Romania imported about one third of the daily natural gas consumption to get it through the cold winter period, these being the biggest daily imports of natural gas in the last five years, according to some sources from the energy sector, quoted by Agerpres.
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* Aurel Cazacu: "The American partners are trying to cooperate, even if they do not have the obligation to offset, and Aerostar is the best plant in Romania" * A rise of over 40% for the Aerostar shares over the last year
Shares of "Aerostar" Bacău (ARS) yesterday rose 6.5%, to 5.24 lei/share, taking the company's valuation to an all time high - 797.93 million lei, after American company Raytheon announced that it has requested a quote from ARS, to get more information about the parts that might be manufactured in Bacău for the Patriot radar, which is part of the Patriot missile system.
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* "We prefer dialogue, but we may resort to the European courts as well, if things don't work out"
The European Commission is encouraging dialogue with the Romanian authorities concerning Emergency Government Ordinance 64 of 2016 concerning the natural gas sector, but if the issues on this matter cannot be resolved, we may resort to the European Court of Justice, European energy commissioner Miguel Arias Canete, said in a meeting in Brussels with the representatives of the Romanian energy sector.
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The success of Antena 3 is admirable! Dan Voiculescu has once again proved his usefulness, his television has created the somewhat plausible media context for justice minister Tudorel Toader to dare make his proposal for the revocation of Laura Codruța Kovesi as chief-prosecutor of the DNA, despite the extraordinary support that she gets in the country and abroad.
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The dismissal of chief DNA (National Anti-corruption Department) prosecutor Laura Codruța Kovesi was announced last night by Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, at the headquarters of the Ministry, after presenting the justification of the decision, presented in the form of twenty bullet points, while also taking the opportunity to mention he had been head of class, which surprised everybody, because no one was interested in his school achievements.
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* Senators have voted for the annual effective rate to be at most 2.5% higher than the policy rate when it comes to mortgage * The law will go to the Chamber of Deputies - the decision making forum * Senator Zamfir: "Today, we have become European as far as the manner in which loans are granted as well"
PNL senator Daniel Cătălin Zamfir does not disappoint. His draft law concerning the capping of interest rates was the first that appeared on the agenda yesterday, in the common meeting of the specialized commissions and despite the controversies between him and a few other party colleagues, including the president of the Economic Commission Florin Cîțu, the liberal got more than he had made his objective initially - not just the capping of compensatory and penalty interest rates, but also the capping of the annual effective interest rate charged by banks and Non-Financial Banking Institutions (IFNs).
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* The investigation concerns the deliberate reporting of inaccurate financial statements or untrue information * Sebastian Vlădescu: "An investigation is the only solution which would show where the money went, I know I've done my job"
The DIICOT prosecutors have begun prosecution in rem of the actions, in the "Romcab" (MCAB) case, according to a response sent by the prosecutors to Valentin Stănescu, a shareholder in the company.
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Decorated by Traian Băsescu with the Star of Romania, Gunther Krichbaum, the president of the European Affairs Commission of the Bundestag, asks the president of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, through a letter, not to suspend the application of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (MCV) concerning the Romanian judicial system and writes that "in the event of new attacks on the independence of the judicial system, should take into consideration initiating the procedure for the activation of article 7 of the EU treaty" (the suspension of Romania's voting rights in the EU council).
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* Lucian Bode, co-initiator of the BRUA, is asking for clarifications from Teodor Meleșcanu concerning the export of natural gas from Hungary
We are happy that the perimeters on the continental coast of Romania (ed. note: offshore in the Black Sea) will start being exploited, because there lies inactive a very important resource of the energy industry, his excellency Valery Kuzmin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation told us in Bucharest, during Diplomat's Day.
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* Also discussed were the intentions of the Mazarin company to acquire some perimeters
The management of the National Mineral Resources Agency (ANRM) met on Tuesday with Shelley Saxen, deputy economic advisor of the US embassy in Bucharest. On the agenda was last Friday's order issued by the ARNM which establishes the reference price for natural gas mined in Romania, in order to set the royalties will be calculated based on the trading prices on the hub of CEGH Vienna, according to sources close to the talks.
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